Meet me on the battlefield
by BlueDiamondStar
Summary: One woke up in the dark hospital room while the other watched from the shadows. What they shared in the past of their young days is long buried, literally. So why he feels like old loss is opening those wounds up? No judging, no flaming, no barking, okay? I simply attempted to bring that old muse back and threw a fresh twist in it. One-shot.


_''No time for rest_

 _No pillow for my head_

 _Nowhere to run from this_

 _No way to forget''_

 _''Around the shadows creep_

 _Like friends, they cover me_

 _Just wanna lay me down and finally_

 _Try to get some sleep..''_

What he was now and where was his world...

It wasn't the day he remembered fighting the finale battle with the Gua. And this place definitely wasn't Eddie's trailer or whatever room of a dangy motel he had snuck in. No, this was the furthest from those places it could be and possibly worst was that he had no memory of getting there nor what had happened during the battle. Did they loose? Or maybe win?

 _"Remember what we're fighting for..."_

Suddenly there was sharp pain in his right leg. The knee he at first didn't even notice being in a brace was getting the pain level up. He looked at it wondering why he'd be having pain and what he did to his leg now.

 _"Echoes of the shots ring out..."_

He looked around one more time suddenly noticing hair that was usually short now spreading down his shoulders and looking halfway towards full dreadlocks. But by the touch he managed to slip to his chin from hands loosely shackled to the bed he was laying in somebody had shaved his face at least, even if leaving his hair alone. Things just didn't make sense these days.

 _"Meet me on the battlefield_

 _Even on the darkest night..."_

Slowly as the man took in his surroundings the background noise begun to pierce through the shock layer. There was now one truly annoying beeping and next to that a whooshing sound .

Now that he was believing his brain had finally given up Cade Foster looked closer at the machines surrounding him and came to conclusion that somehow he made his way to hospital.

 _" We carry on through the storm_

 _Tired soldiers in this war..."_

And there were some weird new sense that took over gradually. Not that he was a stranger to senses but at the moment he was lost in it. For there to be one must mean only one... the battle was success. There would be no other explanation aside the one he refused to believe. It was only other but it was for more desperate days. Cade Foster didn't go this far only to be put back into the worst outcome. No, that was for the Gua to suffer, no humans. Denial or whatnot but the man felt adamant on not loosing his only hope for the whole humanity that was left. And he was the chosen one, the Twice Blessed Man to carry through with the plan and win the battle for once.

 _'' Echoes of the shots ring out_

 _We may be the first to fall_

 _Everything could stay the same_

 _Or we could change it all...''_

Cade Foster had come this far not to loose a battle. No, he was there to kick the alien asses and get back his civilian life he long ago used to love enough to give up the dark side of himself. He became a changed man. Only to come the alien race upon the Earth and kill every single thing he wanted to not change.

But right at the moment he didn't know how he felt about anything...

 _''We're standing face-to-face_

 _With our own human race...''_

The pain was there and made the reality more _real_ for the man in the hospital bed. He tried hardest he ever could to fight the sudden onset of fatigue and more pain. It wasn't just the leg that was in pain, the were pain in his head and some more in his back. If he could lift or move his hands more than just a bit it would've been like ten times easier to judge what was going on.

However the man's battered body decided upon itself that this was the best time to pass out and have a long nap.

 _''Our tainted history_

 _Is playing on repeat...''_

He didn't notice a shadow moving by the door nor did he was aware of a sad, low sigh that traveled past the window behind the bed. The shadow moved with super quiet steps and barely made the air in the room move along. The black gloved hand cautiously moved to the foot of the bed and gripped the chart attached to the rail. The eyes used to fast reading zipped along the lines of diagnosis and traveled over the page in speeds over general human possibility. The man put down a shaky sigh and let the hand curl in a fist that still shook.

 _''I will be your sword and shield...''_

There could've been more to do for his fallen friend but not even they could change much. He was simply aware of his friend's broken body and mind. The doctors just shook their heads whenever he asked or suggested something. They were giving up. But not him. He's been along the mission since it begun to stray off the original course. And then the whole thing literally flew to dust after one of the bad guys took it upon their hands to sort out the couple.

Clint had been the one to blast his way out of that one but not before the building collapsed onto their heads and his friend got trapped under the stuff. But then it all crumbled away and it took Clint two days to dig himself out enough to nearly die from his own injuries.

 _'' Your camouflage, and you will be mine...''_

He was the one to wake up back in the Med with almost completely renewed body. But it had taken couple months anyway. And then therapy until there was green light to return.

Clint Barton never forgot though. The loss of another close person was hitting hard and so unexpected it was hurting... badly...

 _''Echoes of the shots ring out...''_

And it did hurt truly deep and so painfully true Clint tried not to dwell on it too much. He just trained harder and then more. He completely shut down emotions and at times did try to drown them into bottle. He simply worked harder and fought with more darkness.

Barton never grieved but when he did it wasn't a sight anyone would want to see.

 _''We may be the first to fall...''_

It never tend to be mentioned again in the light of the day. It was supposed to even stay out of his file. Though one would never believe the man of dark past and bow over his shoulder could even be portraying any such emotion at all.

Nobody would even believe there was a chance the past of carnie would be hiding such secret life under the guise. But he did and so did the only other person in his solitary life filled with battles, secret missions and death.

 _''Everything could stay the same...''_

They always would just know him alone. That was how he agreed on continuing. He just moved on to never look back again. Until this day month ago...

It changed the whole thing but more... it changed his life once again. The life he was trying to continue. And in the same crashing quality way he did all those years ago.

 _''Or we could change it all...''_

The sight that greeted the archer had been one he internally expected but still shook his frame upon actually seeing it. And it wasn't the blood and gore that undid the years of bottled up emotions. It was the memories he'd taken away from himself to avoid going along the plan that was agreed upon years before. Indeed he just moved on. And now the person that he once held closer than anyone else was there. He was alive...

 _''Meet me on the battlefield_

 _Even on the darkest night_

 _I will be your sword and shield,_

 _Your camouflage, and you will be mine...''_

The man of the shadows slipped outside the moment sun hit the horizon and by the time nurses came to start the day there was no sign of the visitor of the night.

However there was something Cade noticed when he woke up and looked around the room.

A tiny pendant was placed on the bedside table. He could see it shining through the haze his sight still was. And in his fisted palm there was a dog tag that said his name alongside another name...

Cade took a closer look at it once the nurse was done her check up.

It just said '' _Kincaid Lawrence Foster''_ and '' _Clinton Francis Barton_ ''

 _''And meet me on the battlefield_

 _Even on the darkest night_

 _I will be your sword and shield,_

 _Your camouflage, and you will be mine..''_

 _''Echoes of the shots ring out_

 _We may be the first to fall_

 _Everything could stay the same_

 _Or we could change it all...''_


End file.
